Not content with raising taxes 66%, attempting to track down those crazy homeschoolers so they can be “helped”, and sheltering Wisconsin’s missing Democrats (we hear that Indiana’s Dems are on the run as well) Illinois actually has HB 1166 sitting in Committee right now which will criminalize individuals who own 7 or more “companion animals”.

As usual, one has to dig around a bit to find out just what the terminology contained within the proposed Law means and what the effect might be:

(510 ILCS 70/2.01a)Sec. 2.01a. Companion animal. "Companion animal" means an animal that is commonly considered to be, or is considered by the owner to be, a pet. "Companion animal" includes, but is not limited to, canines, felines, and equines.(Source: P.A. 92‑454, eff. 1‑1‑02.)

A person must obtain a permit from the Board to possess 7
or more companion animals, as defined in the Humane Care for
Animals Act. Failure to receive a permit for the possession of
7 or more companion animals is a violation of this Section and
a person is guilty of a Class B misdemeanor. A second or
subsequent violation is a Class 4 felony with every day that a
violation continues constituting a separate offense.

Who is “The Board” referred to in the above change?

"The County Board Chairman"

Now considering that there are 102 Counties in the State of Illinois and each Chairman according to page 2 of the proposed legislation is required to hire Administrators, Deputy Administrators and Wardens to enforce this arbitrary number – how much do you think that Permit is going to cost? Who approves it? How do you schedule it? Where will the funds come from? Who defines what other species are covered?

How will dog breeders, rescue groups, cat fanciers, bird owners, riding stables, boarding facilities, and that farm owner who needs rodent control in the barn going to be affected by this? See what they have to say by clicking on the above links.

Most have this general comment which seems to be true from reading both HB 1166 and the Illinois Statutes.

I’ve a friend in Illinois who has rescued 6 critters “set free” by their owners to return to the wild in these difficult economic times. She has taken these “companions” on her farm providing medical care and training while making the effort to re-home them. In total she cares for many more than the “hoarder bill” allows without the future permit.

So far there are no Co-Sponsors on this HB 1166 and one member stated this was “dead in the water.” Yeah – and if you like your health insurance – you can keep it……..

Related

There’s a lot of misunderstanding and miscommunication going around about the
effect of this bill. Please see below the email I wrote to the Raw list I am
on.

**********

The legislation would actually do the following:

ONE: Require a person to obtain a permit from the County Board to possess 7
or more companion animals. Failure to receive a permit for the possession of
7 or more companion animals would result in the person being guilty of a
Class B misdemeanor. A second or subsequent violation is a Class 4 felony
with every day that a violation continues constituting a separate offense.

TWO: Change the definition of a “Companion animal hoarder” from a person who
(i) possesses “a large number of” companion animals to a person who (i)
possesses 7 or more companion animals.

All other requirements of the definition of Companion animal hoarder remain
the same:
“(ii) fails to or is unable to provide what he or she is required to provide
under Section 3 of this Act; (iii) keeps the companion animals in a severely
overcrowded environment; and (iv) displays an inability to recognize or
understand the nature of or has a reckless disregard for the conditions under
which the companion animals are living and the deleterious impact they have
on the companion animals’ and owner’s health and well-being.”

Again, it merely changes the vague “a large number of” to “7 or more.” IT
DOES NOT define a person with 7 or more companion animals as a hoarder,
with or without a permit. Therefore, there is NO need for an exemption for
breeders, etc.

Let’s at least be clear about the legislation so we don’t sound stupid to our
legislators.

*****
On March 17, 2011, this bill, along with all of the other old bills that have
passed their deadline for passage, was re-referred to the Rules Committee
under Rule 19(a).

From what I read, any of those bills may be sent back to the floor at any
time.

******
The sponsor of the bill is Rep. Patrick J. Verschoore. He’s a Democrat from
the 72nd District and his home office is in Rock Island. He can be contacted
as follows:

This type of permit fee is just another tax upon the citizenry wrapped up in nonsensical legislation. One would think the legislators would have more urgent matters before themselves than another ruse designed to fleece citizens of
what income they have remaining.

RikkiFeb 26, 2011 @ 17:11:28

unfortunately this kind of stuff does pass so do not be surprised when the gestapo shows up at your door to remove all your critters and cart you off to jail:(

The town where I used to live had an ordinance that said you could own no more than 5 total animals (cats and dogs), you could have 3 cats and 2 dogs or 3 dogs and 2 cats, but nor more than that in said configuration. You didn’t need “permits” but you had to have a license so that was essentially the same. The problem is there were those with many animals who TOOK CARE of their animals with no complaints from neighbors, then there were those with one or two animals who let them run loose and flat out didn’t take care of them, so which is the criminal here?

There are times when it’s nice to have recourse when a neighbor is being a nuisance, one of our former neighbors had a chihuahua farm in their back yard, I counted over a dozen dogs, that was just what was in the back yard, as cute as they were, they were noisy, I could hear them from 3 back yards over when I was inside my house with the TV on. But one visit from the city and they got rid of most of the animals.

We also had an over the fence neighbor who had chickens, a definite “code violation” in the city, we never had a problem with them, they kept their chickens in a sanitary manner, no smell and little noise, I wish that city would have made an exception for chickens (not roosters though).

It’s difficult to say how far a city should go in cases like these, I do believe that far too often, officials tend to stick their noses where they don’t belong.

Cat CallahanFeb 24, 2011 @ 23:02:20

Pretty soon the New World Order will get their wish: the desire to kill all friends of man. More murder, more blood-all to appease their god, Lucifer……animals included. I wouldn’t want to be a black cat on Halloween.